Chromatin modification plays an essential role in transcriptional regulation (T. Kouzarides, 2007, Cell 128: 693-705). These modifications, which include DNA methylation, histone acetylation and histone methylation, are disregulated in tumors. This epigenetic disregulation plays an important role in the silencing of tumor suppressors and overexpression of oncogenes in cancer (M. Esteller, 2008, N Engl J Med 358:1148-59. P. Chi et al, 2010, Nat Rev Canc 10:457-469.). The enzymes that regulate histone methylation are the histone methyl transferases and the histone demethylases.
Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1; also known as BHC110) is a histone lysine demethylase reported to demethylate H3K4me1/2 (Y. Shi et al., 2004, Cell 119: 941-953) and H3K9me1/2 (R. Schüe et al., 2005, Nature 437: 436-439). LSD1 is overexpressed in multiple human cancers, including prostate where it is associated with more frequent relapse (P. Kahl et al., 2006, Canc. Res. 66: 11341-11347), breast (J. Kirfel et al., 2010, Carcinogenesis 31: 512-520) neuroblastoma (J. Kirfel et al., 2009, Canc. Res. 69: 2065-2071. G. Sun et al., 2010, Mol. Cell. Biol. 28: 1997-2000). LSD1 is essential for transcriptional regulation mediated by a number of nuclear hormone receptors, including androgen receptor in prostate cancer (R. Schuele et al, 2005, Nature 437: 436-439. R. Schuele et al, 2007, Nat. Cell Biol. 9: 347-353. R. Schuele et al, 2010, Nature 464: 792-796), estrogen receptor in breast carcinomas (M. G. Rosenfeld et al., 2007, Cell 128: 505-518), and TLX receptor in neuorblastoma (S. Kato et al., 2008, Mol. Cell. Biol. 28: 3995-4003). These studies have shown that knockdown of LSD1 expression results in decreased cancer cell proliferation. Additionally, LSD1 is overexpressed in multiple cancer types that are nuclear hormone receptor-independent. Those tumors include ER-negative breast (J. Kirfel et al., 2010, Carcinogenesis 31: 512-520), small-cell lung, bladder, head & neck, colon, serous ovary, and kidney Wilm's tumor. Therefore, potent selective small molecule inhibitors of LSD1 may be useful for treatment of cancers that are nuclear hormone receptor-dependent and/or nuclear hormone receptor-independent.
The compositions and methods provided herein can potentially be useful for the treatment of cancer including tumors such as skin, breast, brain, cervical carcinomas, testicular carcinomas, etc. More particularly, cancers that may be treated by the compositions and methods of the invention include, but are not limited to tumor types such as astrocytic, breast, cervical, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, gastric, head and neck, hepatocellular, laryngeal, lung, oral, ovarian, prostate and thyroid carcinomas and sarcomas. More specifically, these compounds can potentially be used to treat: Cardiac: sarcoma (angiosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, liposarcoma), myxoma, rhabdomyoma, fibroma, lipoma and teratoma; Lung: bronchogenic carcinoma (squamous cell, undifferentiated small cell, undifferentiated large cell, adenocarcinoma), alveolar (bronchiolar) carcinoma, bronchial adenoma, sarcoma, lymphoma, chondromatous hamartoma, mesothelioma; Gastrointestinal: esophagus (squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, leiomyosarcoma, lymphoma), stomach (carcinoma, lymphoma, leiomyosarcoma), pancreas (ductal adenocarcinoma, insulinoma, glucagonoma, gastrinoma, carcinoid tumors, vipoma), small bowel (adenocarcinoma, lymphoma, carcinoid tumors, Kaposi's sarcoma, leiomyoma, hemangioma, lipoma, neurofibroma, fibroma), large bowel (adenocarcinoma, tubular adenoma, villous adenoma, hamartoma, leiomyoma); Genitourinary tract: kidney (adenocarcinoma, Wilm's tumor (nephroblastoma), lymphoma, leukemia), bladder and urethra (squamous cell carcinoma, transitional cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma), prostate (adenocarcinoma, sarcoma), testis (seminoma, teratoma, embryonal carcinoma, teratocarcinoma, choriocarcinoma, sarcoma, interstitial cell carcinoma, fibroma, fibroadenoma, adenomatoid tumors, lipoma); Liver: hepatoma (hepatocellular carcinoma), cholangiocarcinoma, hepatoblastoma, angiosarcoma, hepatocellular adenoma, hemangioma; Bone: osteogenic sarcoma (osteosarcoma), fibrosarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, malignant lymphoma (reticulum cell sarcoma), multiple myeloma, malignant giant cell tumor chordoma, osteochronfroma (osteocartilaginous exostoses), benign chondroma, chondroblastoma, chondromyxofibroma, osteoid osteoma and giant cell tumors; Nervous system: skull (osteoma, hemangioma, granuloma, xanthoma, osteitis deformans), meninges (meningioma, meningiosarcoma, gliomatosis), brain (astrocytoma, medulloblastoma, glioma, ependymoma, germinoma (pinealoma), glioblastoma multiform, oligodendroglioma, schwannoma, retinoblastoma, congenital tumors), spinal cord neurofibroma, meningioma, glioma, sarcoma); Gynecological: uterus (endometrial carcinoma), cervix (cervical carcinoma, pre-tumor cervical dysplasia), ovaries (ovarian carcinoma (serous cystadenocarcinoma, mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, unclassified carcinoma), granulosa-thecal cell tumors, Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors, dysgerminoma, malignant teratoma), vulva (squamous cell carcinoma, intraepithelial carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, fibrosarcoma, melanoma), vagina (clear cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, botryoid sarcoma (embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma), fallopian tubes (carcinoma); Hematologic: blood (myeloid leukemia (acute and chronic), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myeloproliferative diseases, multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndrome), Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (malignant lymphoma); Skin: malignant melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, moles dysplastic nevi, lipoma, angioma, dermatofibroma, keloids, psoriasis; and Adrenal glands: neuroblastoma. Thus, the term “cancerous cell” as provided herein, includes a cell afflicted by any one of or related to the above identified conditions.